Mention preparing for emergencies and most people picture the same thing: a bunker, a mountain of tinned food, a lone figure waiting for the end of the world. That picture is so common that it feels like the truth. It isn’t, and it may not be an accident that it’s everywhere. As long as preparing looks extreme, an ordinary person will assume it’s not for them.
What preparing really looks like
In real life, most people who prepare are not waiting for the end of the world. They are getting ready for a bad day, or a bad month. They prepare for an earthquake. They prepare for a flood or another natural disaster. They prepare for a gas leak that means leaving the house very quickly. They prepare for losing a job and having to stretch what they have. These are things that really do happen to ordinary families, and none of them needs a bunker.
Think of it like fire or accident insurance. You don’t have it because you want it to happen. You have it because it might happen.
Nothing new: it’s what our grandparents did
Both of my grandmothers kept a pantry. Not vast quantities, but enough to see them through a week or two if they needed to, maybe a little more. Nobody thought it was odd. It was just how you ran a house.
For most of the last century that was normal. Homes had a larder or pantry. Jam, pickles and chutney were made when there was a glut, flour and sugar bought in bulk, the coal shed filled before winter, and something was always put by for a rainy day. People who’d lived through hard times didn’t need telling. It’s only in the last few decades, with supermarkets open all hours and deliveries next day, that keeping a full cupboard has started to look strange.
So if anyone tells you prepping is weird, it isn’t. You’re not doing anything new. You’re following in the very sensible footsteps of your grandparents.
Why so many people are uneasy right now
Look around and you’ll notice a lot of people are worried. Can we afford to eat? Can we afford to heat our home? These are everyday money worries, not disaster movie scenarios, and they weigh on people because they feel out of our hands. Prices, weather and the wider economy are things most of us cannot control.
The part you can control
Here is the heart of it. You can’t change what you don’t control, but you can change how you react to it. Preparing is the practical way of doing that. It turns a vague, helpless worry into small actions you can actually take, so that when something goes wrong you are steady instead of scrambling.
Putting the means in your own hands
Ronald Reagan once said that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Whatever you make of the politics, the point holds up in a crisis. In a flood, an earthquake or a long power cut, help may take a while to reach you, because everyone needs it at once.
That is why preparing matters. It means not sitting around waiting for the government, or anybody else, to come and save you. It means putting the means to look after yourself and your family into your own hands, so you can get through the first hours or days steadily until help does arrive.
Official advice says three days. Treat that as the bare minimum, not the target. Government advice has to fit everyone, so it doesn’t fit anyone very well. Whatever you’re preparing for, more is nearly always better than less, as long as it’s more of what you actually use and rotate.
There’s a bigger point too. A household that can feed, water and shelter itself, and that pulls together with its neighbours in a crisis rather than sitting and waiting to be rescued, isn’t at anyone’s mercy. It can’t easily be panicked, and it doesn’t depend on someone else turning up on time. Even the governments now running preparedness campaigns say a self-reliant population is a stronger one. They’re right, though maybe not for the reasons they’d choose to give.
Afraid? Make a plan
A lot of people fear the future. If someone tells me they are afraid, my answer is simple: make a plan.
A plan quiets the fear because it answers the question your brain keeps asking. Without one, your mind circles round “what will I do if this happens?” and scares you with it again and again. With a plan, you already know what you will do, so there is nothing left to circle.
Don’t just buy gear
A friend of mine who preps has noticed more people lately buying bunches of gear, food and water without knowing how to use any of it. His way of putting it is that having all the kit means nothing if you can’t use it.
Be careful about spending a lot of money on things you may not need, or don’t know how to use. Kit you can’t use won’t help you on the day. Start with what your household is actually likely to face, learn to use each thing before you buy the next, and spend slowly.
Where to start
You don’t need to buy anything today to begin. Start by asking one question: what is the most likely bad day for my household? Everything else in this series builds from there.
Useful resources
Don’t take our word for it. Read the originals, and decide what works for you.
- Be Ready: how would you prepare for an emergency?, UK government
- Prepare for emergencies, UK government, with advice on specific hazards